About
![kn_profile_24](https://kierannolan.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/kn_profile_24-1024x1024.jpg)
I’m an artist and academic from Cavan, Ireland, currently serving as a lecturer in Creative Media at Dundalk Institute of Technology, and Co-Director of DkIT’s Creative Arts Research Centre.
I hold a PhD from Trinity College Dublin (School of Computer Science and Statistics, and Digital Arts and Humanities programmes), an MA in Learning and Teaching from DkIT, an MA in Interactive Media from the University of Limerick, a BDes (Hons) in Digital Media from LYIT, and an NDip in Design Communications also from LYIT / ATU Donegal.
My research practice is multidisciplinary exploring the aesthetic, material, and connective properties of games, interfaces, and networked media through digital art, design critique, and platform histories. A sampling of topics that I’ve published on recently includes Ireland’s electromechanical games manufacturing history, digital preservation, arcade telepresence through WebXR, anime and manga’s links to video gaming, and in-game photography and archiving of graffiti art.
I have over 17 years full-time third-level teaching experience, with 14+ years as an external examiner, informed by extensive scholarship and industry experience since the mid-1990s in interaction design, game development, VR and AR, creative coding, physical computing, and visual communications.
I’m Co-President for the History of Games International Conference series, a member of the board of reviewers for the Game Studies journal, and a Management Committee member and workgroup co-lead representing Ireland on the COST action Grassroots of Digital Europe: from Historic to Contemporary Cultures of Creative Computing (GRADE).
I’ve published worldwide through peer-reviewed conferences, articles, and exhibitions including including Fotoludica (Milan), ACM SIGGRAPH (Los Angeles), ACM TEI (Cork), Beta Art and Technology Festival (Dublin), ICAT-EGVE (Dublin), Archiving Hip Hop (Milton Keynes), ROMchip: A Journal of Game Histories, Mechademia (Kyoto), Oxford Blockchain, Art & Technology Conference / OxBAT, Tokyo Game Show, History of Games, RTÉ Brainstorm, the International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, the VGA Reader, Vector Festival (Toronto), D.A.T.A. (Dublin), The Science Gallery (Dublin), EGX Leftfield Collection (London), Irish Screen Studies Symposium (Dublin), Future and Reality of Gaming / F.R.O.G. (Vienna), International Symposium on Electronic Art / ISEA (Belfast, Hong Kong), ZIL Cultural Centre (Moscow), A MAZE (Berlin), METEOR (Tokyo), MAKE (Cork), Transmediale (Berlin), the Art.CHI exhibition at ACM CHI (Seoul), Game On! El arte en juego (Buenos Aires), CHI Play (Amsterdam), CEEGS (Lublin, Trnava), Playing The Game (Milan), IEEE GEM (Galway), the Electronic Literature Organisation Conference (Cork), iHCI (Dundalk, Limerick, Belfast), Out Of Index (Seoul), ITU Centre for Computer Games Research (Copenhagen), Game Talks at IULM University (Milan), State of Play (Dublin), Collaborative Game Histories (Tampere), JSNation (Amsterdam), Replaying Japan (Nottingham, Kyoto, Liège, Edmonton, Nagoya, Buffalo), Japan Media Arts Festival (Tokyo), DiGRA (Lunebürg, Dundee, Turin, Kraków, Seville), and Save the Games (Rochester).
My work has been recognised nationally and internationally by organisations including the Institute of Designers in Ireland (Experience Design Award, 2020), IMIRT: The Irish Game Makers Association (Technical Achievement Award, 2019), The Japan Media Arts Festival (Jury Selection, 2020), and Leonardo: The International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (Top-Ranked Labs Abstracts, 2020).
Honours and Awards (Selected)
Co-President for the History of Games International Conference series, elected 2023.
Winner, Experience Design Category, 21st IDI Awards, Institute of Designers in Ireland, 2020.
Awardee, Top-Ranked LABS Abstracts, Leonardo / The International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology, 2020.
Selected Exhibit, Indie Game Arena, Tokyo Game Show, 2020.
Jury Selection, 23rd Japan Media Arts Festival, Tokyo, 2020.
Winner, Technical Achievement Award, Imirt Irish Game Awards, 2019.
President’s Award for Research Excellence, Early Career Researcher (Creative Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences), Dundalk Institute of Technology, 2017.
Official Selection, International Symposium on Electronic Art / ISEA, Hong Kong, 2016.
Official Selection, Out Of Index Experimental Games Festival, Seoul, 2015.
Finalist, A MAZE International Independent Game Awards, Berlin, 2014.
Shortlisted, Upstart Nokia N-GAGE Game Design Challenge, 2003.
President’s Award for Academic Excellence, University of Limerick, 2002.
Design Student of the Year, Letterkenny Institute of Technology, 1998.
Winner, Multimedia Category, Glen Dimplex Graduate Design Awards, IDI / Institute of Designers in Ireland, 1998.